Source Programme of Events Autumn Winter 2019 The Source Arts Centre Programme Autumn Winter 201 | Page 17

AUTUMN | WINTER 2019
Zhangke’s films seem to look at the changes in
the country with a wary eye, he still receives
financing from official funding bodies in China
and his films such as ‘Still Life’ have been shown
uncensored. To date, six of his films have been
selected for competition at Cannes and one
commentator has dubbed him “the most
important film-maker working in the world
today”.
Director Jia Zhangke
poverty and a migration of people to the main
cities. Alongside the opportunities presented,
these rapid changes have created a generational
gap, a break between urban and rural and
significant demographic and environmental
concerns as the country moves forward in
reform.
Director Jia Zhangke was a surprise winner of the
Golden Lion at Venice in 2006 with ‘Still Life’ and
since then he has gained considerable
international prestige. ‘Still Life’ detailed the lives
of people in a small town on the Yangtze
River which is slowly being destroyed by the
building of the Three Gorges Dam, a huge state
sanctioned infrastructure project. While
www.thesourceartscentre.ie
Screening this October at The Source, ‘Ash Is
Purest White’ the director’s latest feature is set
in a broad timeline around the turn of the
Millennium. Qiao is a miner’s daughter from
Shanxi, northern China (played, in a riveting
performance, by Zhao Tao, director Jia
Zhangke’s wife and muse). A gangster’s moll, she
holds court among the men in the back room of
a mahjong parlour, but is arrested and spends
five years in prison, taking the fall for boyfriend
Bin (Liao Fan) after claiming his illegally owned
gun is hers. Released in 2006, she reconnects
with Bin hoping to resume their life together yet
comes to the realisation that nothing can stay the
same and there is no return to the past. The film
asks how an old model of living can survive
through changing times, suggesting that the
jianghu, or outlaw spirit might be the only thing
that remains.
The traditional and the modern collide in this part
crime epic, part revenge movie, part state
of the nation address. Zhangke manages to
encompass all three elements with aplomb.
‘Ash is Purest White’ screens at 8 p.m. on
Wednesday the 16th of October - on the big
screen.
Box Office: 0504 90204
17